For the latest updates from your alumni community
Many congratulations to Julian Metcalfe (BSc 1978) who was awarded the Alumni Association Medal in 2020 recognising his outstanding contribution to the Association and its activities.
Julian has been Chair of the London Branch of the University of Bristol Alumni since 2016. He is now settled in London after an international career in diplomacy, which took him around the world after completing his studies at Bristol.
As our students started to arrive back to Bristol in October, or for those that embarked on their online learning from home, our School of Accounting and Finance alumni were on hand to provide a warm welcome to new students at their first online lectures. Students were no doubt facing a different term of learning ahead and having our alumni there to welcome them helped bring the student experience to life.
Five graduates from the School of Accounting and Finance shared their experience with current students, giving advice from their studies at the University and details of their career development after graduation.
Yousuf Chowdhury (BSc 2020) shares his experience of the Bristol Mentors programme and how it helped shape his career path.
My undergraduate degree was in Economics. So many of us assumed we were going to go into Finance, without really knowing any specific area we wanted to get into. I was applying to internships in my second year without much success and I didn’t know many people in the sector to turn to. I wanted someone to help me through the process and share their experience of the industry, and that was why I applied to Bristol Mentors.
India Fallon (BA 2014) tells us how her time at Bristol encouraged her to give back by volunteering as a Bristol Connects Career Expert.
Studying at the University of Bristol had such an enormous impact on my life and defined it in so many ways. I was eager to give back and do something to support current students and recent graduates.
Heather Proctor (BSc 1964):
On Tuesday 22 September 2020, the University of Bristol Alumni of Eastern Canada held their first ‘virtual’ reunion. Joanna Sochacka from the Development and Alumni Relations Office gave a very interesting overview of how Bristol has coped during Covid-19. Joanna informed us that the Eastern Canada Alumni group is the oldest continuously-running group in the world. The group has been organising annual reunions for the past 18 years.
Among the group, there were several old University of Bristol scarves to be seen, as well as photos of Bristol on walls. Dennis Osmond (MBChB 1954) showed a big photo of our dear Eastern Canada founder, John Bull (BSc 1958), and we virtually toasted him as Dennis waved a bottle of Bristol Cream! We talked of canoes, bears, a bobcat, skis snowshoes, a kayak, a wedding and a cross Canada drive, as well as ways we’re coping and trips we haven’t taken. All agreed it was so nice to hear from each other, and to meet a new member, Roger Moore (BA 1966).
Next year we look forward to welcoming as many alumni as possible to the 2021 reunion, it may be held in Kingston, if it is safe to do so.
If you are interested in holding your own online reunion and would like us to help please contact alumni-volunteers@bristol.ac.uk.
This summer, ten of our alumni volunteers shared their career stories with pupils through an online event focused on employability. This session was delivered in partnership with With Insight Education, an organisation which mentors Black heritage pupils who are aiming to apply to prestigious universities throughout the UK.
As well as offering valuable insight into their own careers, our alumni volunteers were on hand to answer questions from the pupils and to offer advice. The session was a fantastic chance for the pupils to learn more about how their favourite subjects could translate into a wide variety of career opportunities in the future.
At the Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO) we work with departments across the University to match alumni volunteers with relevant and rewarding opportunities. There are so many different ways to get involved as a Bristol Volunteer and all of them make a huge difference to our community. Whether you give your time or expertise, you will be helping to enrich the lives of students and graduates alike.
Our Bristol Volunteers are a community of over 1,700 alumni who all give their time and expertise to support the University community. We’re so grateful for the huge amount of effort our volunteers put into giving back to the University and to reflect this, we’re developing even more ways to say thank you and recognise their impact.
In response to COVID-19 our 2020 MBChB students graduated early to begin their medical careers and help during these unprecedented times. The Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO), together with the Bristol Medical School, reached out to the doctors in our alumni community to see if they could offer their support and advice during this time, we had an overwhelming response and some truly inspiring and encouraging offers of help.
An incredible 40 alumni offered their time to support our newly graduated MBChB junior doctors, and from those we were able to match 25 students to alumni. These included alumni working in hospitals such as the; BRI, Swindon, Southmead and Taunton. We even had offers of remote support from doctors working outside the Severn Deanery hospitals which was fantastic to receive.
On Tuesday 21 July, our alumni volunteers shared their career stories with students and recent graduates. The event was part of our Bristol Connects Live series – our online series of career and professional development events. The session focused on careers in government and the third sector and our alumni experts shared their career stories and experiences to inspire students and recent graduates to help them understand more about the sector.
The event was hosted by Kim Slim (LLB 2016) who works as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister’s Independent Grenfell Adviser and Head of Grenfell Community Support Team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Kim was joined on the panel by Annabelle Pemberton (BA 2018), Organisational Development Officer at Redearth Education and Shailini Vora (BSc 2016), Trust Fundraising Officer at St Mungo’s.